[BRIGHTCOVE "20900751" "" "" "auto"] With less than two weeks to go before Hollywood's biggest night, six standout Oscar nominees (including four first-timers!) share personal moments with PEOPLE in exclusive, intimate photos and video.

HBO has canceled Enlightened after only two seasons – a rational decision, judging by the low ratings, but not necessarily an enlightened one.

The comedy, created and written by Mike White and starring Laura Dern, was the only TV comedy I can think of that you could call beautiful. It was also deadpan, disturbing, ironic, moving and – even rarer – full of a kind of zen stillness: Everyone always seemed paused in their places, as if sensing that their daily reality was only a blink removed from empty dreaming.

Given all that, I think "beautiful" is the right word. But as Mr. White and Ms. Dern have learned, that's not really what people are looking for in a comedy.

It took fewer than two minutes for Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais to zap his first target of the night.

The dubious distinction went to Kim Kardashian, about whom the silver-tongued host said, "The Golden Globes are to the Oscars what Kim Kardashian is to Kate Middleton … a bit louder, a bit trashier, a bit drunker and more easily bought, allegedly."

Word of his return to the Beverly Hilton Hotel was met with mixed reviews (and perhaps a little fun-loving fear) from the people his sometimes-crass, sometimes-cruel humor offended and delighted last year.